Christmas Angel Pattern Test [Complete!]

It is with absolute joy that I announce the completion of Sweet Softies' very first pattern test: the Christmas Angel [click here for the pattern link]! Hooray! Big cheers for my hard-working testers!!

I'm delighted to present to you their beautiful angels, in order of completion! At the end of the list, I will announce three projects crowned as the "Sweetest Sweet Softies" for this test! (Normally, there would be one award, but I'm having three for my very first test due to the large number of testers!)

Diana has been a ray of sunshine in the Sweet Softies test group. She not only took the initiative of creating the group for our Instagram testers to have better communication, she also facilitated really positive interactions among everyone and made it a warm, welcoming environment for all! Her work is absolutely stunning without a doubt -- I was so in awe of her beautiful doll when I saw how she had finished it with the clever addition of a shiny embellishment as the doll's hairpiece. Thank you Diana for all your hard work! Please check out her Instagram (@_madebydee_) for more beautiful projects, and her blog, which features a special post on the Christmas Angel test!

Tammy has also been an absolute pleasure to work with! She is such a friendly presence to the Sweet Softies community, and has truly turned her Christmas Angel into a work of art! I am blown away by how neat her stitching is and how beautifully her angel turned out. Not only that -- the backdrop she used for her angel's photoshoot is breath-taking! Just take a look at this scenic ocean view! What a masterpiece of a photo. To keep up with more of Tammy's projects, please check out her Ravelry!

Loreal is another amazing crochet artist that makes up our wonderful community! She very thoughtfully planned out her angel's colors, drawing a diagram to begin with. Loreal has fabulous ideas as well, and even designed a mirrored wing [instructions on her blog -- link to come!]to go with my wing pattern! I am in awe of her skills and talents! The way she finished her angel with the golden touches is so creative and stunning as well. To view more of Loreal's amazing work, please check out her Facebook page, Ravelry, and Instagram!

Finally, I'll close this post with some real talk...

Get ready for some heart-to-heart!

When I look at all of these angels, I can't help but admire the amazing talents and creativity that each crocheter brings to the table! What diversity there is, and it's so wonderful that such great variation can come out of a single design. As I previously mentioned in the WIP blog post, putting one's own, unique flair into a project is the beauty of handcrafting!

On a personal level, this has been such an amazing experience for me as the pattern designer. When I began the test, I really had no idea that I'd have the opportunity to forge such great friendships with these talented crocheters from around the world. I have some testers from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Singapore, Malaysia, and more! What a pleasure and humbling experience it is to connect with this global crochet community. It has been absolutely touching.

Thank you all for bringing more joy into crochet for me! I hope I can spread the same joy back to you!

With much love,

P.S. For those of you who are interested in the Christmas Angel CAL (7/25/17 - 8/8/17), please click here for information! Take advantage of the 40% off CAL discount before 7/31/17!